


Brandy Beats the Sea

by sunkelles



Series: a bunch of a-holes [3]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe- Guardians of the Galaxy Fusion, F/F, Femslash, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Sister-Sister Relationship, Snaibsel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-24
Updated: 2017-09-24
Packaged: 2019-01-05 01:59:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12180681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunkelles/pseuds/sunkelles
Summary: Artemis reunites with her sister. Zatanna reunites with her mother. One of these goes significantly better than the other does.or Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 with snaibsel in the starring roles





	Brandy Beats the Sea

**Author's Note:**

> The soundtrack, in order of appearance 
> 
> Authority Song- John Mellencamp, formerly Cougar  
> Mr. Roboto- Styx  
> Starman- David Bowie  
> 99 Red Balloons- Nena  
> Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)- Looking Glass  
> Evil Woman- ELO  
> Heaven is a Place on Earth- Belinda Carlise 
> 
> 1\. this fic involves basically the same warnings as gotg itself, just add more cursing  
> 2\. i cut a lot of subplots out of this from the movie so hopefully it still works  
> 3\. artemis's speech pattern is based on gamora's which is kind of inconsistent so i hope that it works okay  
> 4\. enjoy!!!!!!

Since saving the world, The Guardians of the Galaxy have started taking jobs. They’ve all been just this side of legal and for good money. None of them have been high profile or for anyone that would put them back on the intergalactic radar. The group would prefer to stay lower profile, so when they inevitably end up breaking laws again and losing the intergalactic good will they’ve incurred, maybe it won’t be on the scale where everyone knows. So when Artemis suggests they run a job for the Sovereign, a planetary government with a lot of clout and a whole forest worth of sticks shoved up their asses, no one on the team is particularly thrilled.

“We’re gonna run a job for the Sovereign,” Artemis announces.

“But why would we?” Rocket says, “they offering good money?”

“....No.”

“Then why would we?” Rocket asks, reclining back in his chair, “I never done nothing for free.” Drax sends him a horrified look.

“You have always done everything for free? Rocket, I am concerned-”

“No you idiot, I meant- UGH! I ain’t doing _this_ for free. Why do you want to Artemis? You like money, dontcha?”

“They have my sister,” Artemis says.

“Eh,” Rocket says, “she really worth it?”

“I don’t know.” Rocket’s look softens.

“Alright, you just wanna find out, right?” Artemis doesn’t even move, but Rocket takes that as a yes.

“I’m down.”

“I am Groot!” He sends them a wide, baby tree smile.

“If I were able to save my family, I would do anything. I will do the same for yours, Artemis,” Drax adds.

“Zee?”

“Of course.” Zatanna thinks that it’s a terrible idea, but that doesn’t mean that she won’t help. She’s not going to be the nay vote that keeps Artemis from getting her sister back, even though she doesn’t understand _why_ she would want her back. Cheshire is a major dick.

“So we’ll take the job, get your sister,” Rocket says, “sounds easy enough.” Artemis nods and stands up. She’s probably going to the back of the ship to catch a little privacy.

“Don’t say that,” Zatanna groans.

“Whaddya mean?”

“You’ll _jinx_ us.” Rocket shrugs.

“Haven’t jinxed us yet.” Zatanna rolls her eyes. She’s pretty sure she can think of _five_ times that Rocket’s jinxed them, but it isn’t worth arguing over.

“Hey Rocket, can you fly for a bit?” Zatanna says, hopping out of the pilot’s chair.

“Sure,” Rocket says, hopping out of his own chair, “I’ll do better than you do too.” Zatanna rolls her eyes, but doesn’t address it. If she addressed every single comment Rocket ever made then she’d never stop. Then, Zatanna goes to find Artemis. 

“What do you think?” Artemis asks, leaning against the tape dock.

“Honestly?”

“Why would I want you to lie?” Some of the intricacies of interaction have been lost on Artemis. That's not really surprising, though, when she was raised to be a weapon. 

Rather than explain that sometimes people want reassurance of their position rather than honest advice, Zatanna says, “I don’t think this is gonna go the way you want it to.”

“How do I want it to go?”

“You want her to apologize, don’t you?” Artemis’s look sours.

“Of course not,” she growls. Zatanna sighs.

“I don’t want her to _apologize._ I want to destroy her.” Artemis has been an assassin, has killed more people than Zatanna has ever met, but Zatanna also knows her heart. It isn’t as hardened as she’d like to pretend. She says that she wants revenge, but Zatanna suspects that she wants an apology and a sister. Zatanna isn’t sure that she’ll get that.

“I know what I’m doing, Zee,” Artemis growls. Zatanna sighs, but she goes along with it. She’s not about to tell Artemis that she shouldn’t hunt down her sister, even though she knows that it’s unhealthy for her. Then, Artemis slips to the back of the ship.

They retrieve the batteries, and then bring them before the Sovereign. The Sovereign, as expected, are stuck up assholes. They’re people made of gold that were literally biologically engineered to be the best that they can physically be. That’s bound to give a species a complex.

“Your payment.” One of the gold members of the Sovereign drag in Artemis’s sister. Cheshire looks like an anthromorphized cat, with bright white fur, sharp ivory teeth and red markings on her furry face and ears. She’s also lying on the floor like a discarded doll or a dead body.

“She’s not dead, right?” Zatanna asks. She honestly can’t tell. Zatanna won’t be pleased if they did all this work to get Artemis a corpse instead of a living sister.

“She’s unconscious,” Artemis says flatly.

“We weren’t exactly going to give her to you conscious. That’s a shotty way to exchange prisoners.”

“Thank you.”

“You primitive life forms made our lives easier. This was a reasonable way to repay you.”

“You know, they told us you were stuck up assholes, but this isn’t true at all,” Rocket says. Then he fucking winks.

“Take your prisoner and go, please.”

“Glady,” Artemis says. Then, she and Zatanna pick her up and carry her between them. They take her to the ship. When they get there, Artemis handcuffs her sister to a chair in the hull of the ship. Then, she waits for her to wake up. She doesn’t have to wait long. Cheshire opens her eyes, and then tilts her head like a curious cat towards Artemis.

“Gamora,” Cheshire says.

“That’s not my name,” Artemis growls. Cheshire rolls her eyes.

"What does it matter?" 

“Are you telling me yours is really Cheshire?” Artemis says sarcastically.

“Wouldn’t you like to know," she says, like her name is the best kept and most interesting secret in the galaxy. Artemis doesn’t want to admit that’s close to how she feels on the matter.

“I should have known you’d be like this,” Artemis says.

“What were you expecting, a hug and a pat on the back? Get over yourself.” Artemis is unfazed by this. It’s basically what she expected from this conversation.

“I collected you for the bounty, and I intend to get it. Sister or not.”

“We’re not sisters, kid,” Cheshire says, and she sounds strangely tender as she says it, “never have been, never will be.” Artemis stiffens.

“If that’s how you feel.” She doesn’t know why she wants Cheshire to say something else, _anything else,_ but she does. She doesn’t want things to end this way.   
  
“That’s how I’ve always felt.” It feels so definitive, so final.

“Fine,” Artemis says. She stands up, and she leaves her not-sister alone in the hull. She finds Zatanna as she walks into the main part of the ship.

“How’d it go?” Zatanna asks gently.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Zatanna nods, and takes the hint. She doesn’t ask about it again. Then, Zatanna just turns on her music, and Artemis tries to relax into it as they fly through space. It’s one of the songs that Artemis likes best, by the man with a funny name, something about a cougar and a melon.

Artemis feels the music building up to the chorus, and then she hears a blaster shot.

“What the hell!” Zatanna shouts.

 _I fight authority, authority always wins-_ Artemis hears another blaster shot, and realizes that the first one wasn’t a fluke.

 _Well, I fight authority, authority always wins-_ Zatanna turns right back around, and sees that there’s a whole fucking _fleet_ after them: the Sovereign fleet.

 _Well I’ve been doing it since I was a young kid and I come out grinning-_ “Anyone know why the _Sovereign Fleet_ is after us!” Zatanna calls out, swerving the ship to the side to avoid a blast.

 

 _Well I fight authority, authority always wins-_ “That’s probably because Rocket stole their batteries,” Drax says calmly.

“Drax!”

“I mean I have no idea why this is happening. What a mystery this is.” Artemis curses in her birth tongue.

 

_I’ve been doing it since I was a young kid and I’ve come out grinning_

 

“You idiot,” Zatanna growls.

“Hey, these shits are worth a lot of money," Rocket says, "We didn’t get paid for this job, decided that we should.”

“The Sovereign just declared _war_ on us.”

“We can take them.”

“Ah yes,” Zatanna says, “the five of us against an entire race of aliens. That’s gonna go great, don’t ya think?”

“Would you all just shut up!” Artemis shouts. The blaster fire is still coming their way. They’ve only downed a few of the Sovereign's drone ships.

 

_I fight authority, authority always wins_

 

They barely escape with their lives, and the ship is left in tatters. Drax, who threw himself out of the ship to try to fix a problem, is lucky that his skin is so thick and his head is so hard or he would be dead. A gorgeous, ornate ship lands beside them. Then, two women exit the ship.

“Who are you?” Zatanna demands, crossing her arms over her chest. The woman has slight crows feet around her eyes, and a few wisps of her curly, black hair are turning grey. She looks about fifty years old, about the same age her dad would be if lived this long. The woman smiles, and it’s soft and warm, almost motherly.

“My name is Ego. I’m your mom, Zatanna,” the woman says.

“Wow,” Zatanna says. The woman smiles.

“I knew that you would be excited.”

“I’m not excited. I meant _wow_ -” she pauses a moment, and does jazz hands, “like I don’t believe you.”

“I was so sorry to hear about your father. Did Giovanni keep up with his magic til the end?” Suddenly, Zatanna can’t find her voice.

“Zee, can I speak to you?” Artemis asks.

“Uh yeah,” Zatanna says, “sure!” She’ll never pass up a chance to speak to her girlfriend alone.

“You’re being an idiot,” Artemis tells her.

"What?" Zatanna demands, "I'm not being an idiot, I'm being responsible." 

"No, you're being an idiot. Didn't you tell me all about pretending that Fisher princess was your mother?" 

"Carrie Fisher," Zatanna says, "and it would be easier if Carrie Fisher were my mother. I actually  _know_ somethings about her." Zatanna doesn't know anything about this woman. At least she knows that Carrie Fisher played Princess Leia, suffered through a drug addiction and mental illness and then came out joking about it. 

“If I had a chance to see my mom again-” Artemis’s voice cracks a little, and Zatanna gets a glimpse of the pain her girlfriend carries around every day. They’re close, but there’s still so much that Artemis hasn’t told her, so many pains that have been too private to share.

“I would take it, Zee. No matter what.”

“But what if she’s not my mom? What if this is a trick.” She doesn’t really know how it could be, but she doesn’t trust her. Something about this doesn’t feel right.

“Then we kill her,” Artemis says offhandedly. The best part about that is that Zatanna legitimately can’t tell if the other woman is joking or not. Zatanna sighs, and they go back to meet up with Ego. 

“So, what do you want?” Zatanna asks off-handedly.

“I’d like to show you my planet. Show you the wonders of the other half of your heritage. Giovanni was an amazing man, but his magic tricks were just that- tricks. I can show you what real magic is like.” Then Zatanna starts laughing.

“Magic- magic isn’t real. I was raised by a stage magician, I know that better than most.” She doesn’t know why this woman would bring this up other than to prove she actually knew Zatanna’s father, or maybe to drive the shrapnel deeper into her heart. Ego smiles at her- _fucking smiles_ and holds her hand out like a wizard on a tv show. Then, a ball of bright blue light appears in her hand. Zatanna feels her eyes widen as she pushes herself backwards in fear.

Ego chuckles, and puts a soft hand on her shoulder, “It’s nothing to be afraid of.”

“But- but” This woman just shattered her worldview. Surely Zatanna has a right to be shocked.

“My powers grow weaker the further away from my planet I go, but I still have them.” She moves her hand in a fluid, circular motion, and the ball follows it seamlessly.

“Wow,” Zatanna says, enthralled by the ball of energy in Ego’s hand. Her father had spent his whole life performing stage magic and seeking out the real stuff. She understands how he fell for a woman with such wondrous powers. He dad told her before he died mother was a magical woman- a real life witch, but he had brain cancer and everyone thought he was delusional.

“If you come with me, I can teach you to do this.” And well, Zatanna has always wanted magic. She knows that it might be foolish, but she wants a mother and she wants magic, no matter how skeezy this situation sounds.

“We’ll come with you, Ego.”

“Please,” Ego says with a soft, motherly smile, “call me mom.”

  


Zatanna, Artemis and Drax decide to leave with Ego the next morning.

“If she pulls anything, feel free to shoot her," Artemis says. 

“We went through a lot of work for this,” Rocket says, “I ain’t gonna shoot her if I don’t hafta.” Cheshire looks contemplative, then looks directly into Artemis’s eyes.

“You want an apology, don’t you?” Cheshire says, and her ears fall.

“I don’t want _anything_ from you." 

“Except the bounty,” Rocket says, “we really want the bounty.”

“Well, yes,” Artemis says, “nothing but the bounty. But that did not have the same emotional impact.”

“Does the emotional impact really matter when there’s money involved?” Rocket asks.

“The emotions always matter,” Drax says, “that is what I told my wife, whenever I asked if she would like to have sex-”

“Would you all just shut up,” Cheshire groans.

“I could just shoot you,” Artemis says casually, “put you out of your misery.”   
  
“ _Anything_ would be better than listening to this,” Cheshire says. Rocket grins. Then, he hits Zatanna’s stereo and starts a song.

“You sure about that?” A twinkling beat starts. A robotic voice sings, followed by an angelic chorus.

 

_Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto_

_Mata au hi made_

_Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto_

_Himitsu wo shiri tai_

 

Cheshire groans.

 

_You’re wondering who I am (secret secret I’ve got a secret)_

 

Cheshire groans again. Zatanna feels better knowing that at least Cheshire will be miserable too. They go to meet Ego, and she flies them to her planet. Ego sleeps the whole ride up, and they get to speak to her companion, Mantis. Nothing that Mantis says sets them at ease. At least they finally get to the planet. They step outside. Zatanna has traveled the galaxy, but never seen a planet as majestic as this one.

The whole planet looks like a drawing out of a Doctor Seuss book. It’s bright and colorful, whimsical and creative. The vegetation is fluffy and colorful, like a whole planet of Truffula Trees. Zatanna doesn’t have her walkman on, but it reminds her of one of her favorite Bowie songs.

 

_There’s a starman waiting in the sky_

 

She hums the tune and thinks of the lyrics as they fly over the gorgeous landscape.

 

_But he thinks he'd blow our minds_

_There's a starman waiting in the sky_

_He's told us not to blow it-_

 

She’s forced out of her fantasy world as they set down on the planet. Ego gestures towards the expanse, and grins.

“Welcome to paradise,” Ego says. She’s standing in front of a literal palace. Suddenly, Zatanna actually _feels_ like a Star Queen.

“It’s wonderful,” Zatanna says.

“This all belongs to you?” Artemis asks, looking skeptical.

“Well, I think _belongs_ might be the wrong word,” Ego says. Artemis rolls her eye. Ego leads them through the palace doors and into the great expanse inside.

“This planet is me.”

“You’re a planet?” Artemis says, crossing her arms.

“Well, partially. This physical form is really me, but so is the planet that we walk on.”

“I don’t understand." 

“How could you have sex with Zatanna’s father if you are a planet?” Drax asks.

“This body is me is well. I’m a being of energy and I can craft any form that I choose. This particular form has all the necessary human reproductive parts.”

“Mom,” Zatanna says, feeling herself blush. She doesn't actually want to hear about how her parents conceived her.

“Oh Zatanna, you understand the birds and the bees, don't you?” Then Ego looks contemplative.

“Well, I guess you _might_ not, considering which bird you’re bee-ing with,” Ego says with a wink. That’s one of the worst jokes that Zatanna’s ever heard, and she’s even more embarrassed than before. She can’t bring herself to feel any negative emotions about this situation though. Zatanna has a mother that can tease her about crushes and bodily functions. She has a mother and magic, and all that matters.

 

As they tour the rest of the planet, Zatanna learns how beautiful and amazing her mother’s planet truly is. She shows her the deepest caverns and the highest peaks. She shows her luminescent flowers and lakes of molten gold. Every inch of the surface is more majestic than the last.

Then, Ego teaches her how to control her powers. _Magic_ right beneath her fingertips. Zatanna feels as if all her dreams have come true. Everything seems to have fallen into place.

 

 

Artemis is alone on a distant planet, lonely and bored. After Ego showed them the palace, she went off alone with Zatanna. It’s been nearly two days now that they’ve been gone exploring. Two days with Artemis stuck with Drax and Ego’s meek servant, and she grows more worried by the moment. Something about this planet feels off. Something about _Ego_ feels off. She regrets telling Zatanna to give her a chance. Then, Zatanna finally comes back. 

“It was _amazing_ ,” Zatanna says. There’s a twinkle in her eye as she says these words, and Artemis has never seen her so happy. She doesn’t want to crush it, but she knows that she has to.

“When do you want to leave?” Artemis asks. She tries to be diplomatic about it, gentle even, but she has to be direct. She doesn’t want to stay on this planet any longer, and she doesn’t think that it's good for them to either. 

“Leave? Why would we want to leave? We’ve got everything we need right here.”

“Uh, no. Our lives are out there. This was a nice vacation, but this can’t last. Rocket and Groot need us.”

“We can’t leave yet,” Zatanna says, “I still have so much to learn. Mom says that if I work really hard, but if I work at it, I might get good enough with the magic that I can use it anywhere.”

“How long do you want to stay?”

“A couple of months, maybe.”

“A couple of _months?_ That’s crazy. You didn’t even want to come here in the first place!”

“I changed my mind,” Zatanna asserts, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

“You’re not thinking straight, Ego must have done something to your brain, made you susceptible to suggestion. The Zatanna I know wouldn’t be this stupid.”

“I’m not being stupid. I just found my mom, can’t you be _happy_ for me?”

“I want to be, Zee. I do, it’s just- something doesn’t feel right.” There’s something wrong with this planet. They’re the only sentient life on it. Zatanna was reluctant to even _meet_ her mom, and now she wants to stay indefinitely? Something’s wrong.

“You’re just mad that my mom’s awesome and your sister sucks,” Zatanna says with the smug confidence of someone aiming to hurt. Artemis digs her nails into the backs of her palms to keep from drawing her fists.

“There’s something wrong with your mom, and you’re too blind to see it.”

“I don’t believe you,” Zatanna says. Artemis grabs her backpack full of rations.

“I’m going out,” she growls, stalking towards the exit.

“Where?” Zatanna asks, “We’re the only people on this planet.”

“Somewhere without you,” Artemis retorts, with the smug confidence of someone aiming to hurt. Then, she stalks out of the palace and into the wilderness.

  
  


It turns out that going into the unknown in an angry huff wasn’t her brightest idea. Thirty minutes later, after Artemis has finally calmed down, she has no idea where she is. She knows that if she turns around and walks in the same direction that she came, then she’ll eventually come back to Ego’s palace. She doesn’t want to, though.

At the moment, Artemis has no idea how to return to Ego’s palace. Let Zatanna enjoy her new, freaky mother and abandon the rest of them. Artemis doesn’t care. It’s not as though she has _abandonment issues_ or something, after her sister left her alone with her abusive shit of a father. No, Artemis doesn’t care what Zatanna does.

She kicks the thing in front of her in anger. It turns out that it’s a rock. It hurts.

“Shit,” she curses, breathy and forceful. She puts her weight on the foot that she didn’t ram into a rock. Then, she hears a ship’s engine. She turns around, and sees one flying straight above her. Then, the ship crashes into the ground a ways away from her. Cheshire exits the ship in all her white, furry glory.

“What the _hell?”_ Artemis demands. She’s too fucking done for this.

“Little sister,” Cheshire says.

“Sure, yeah,” Artemis says, “ _now_ we’re sisters.” Cheshire shrugs, as if this doesn’t that matter much to her.

“How did you find me?”

“The racoon told me you’d come to Ego’s planet.”

“How did you get here?”

“Might or might not have staged an uprising.” Artemis rubs her forehead in frustration.

“Is Rocket dead?”

“Of course not,” Cheshire says, rolling her cat’s eyes, “I’m not that sloppy, Gamora.”

“My name is _Artemis,”_ she says, “what are you even here for?”

“I came to warn you about Ego.”

“Warn me?”

“Ego’s a monster.” Cheshire sounds sincere about it.

“I could say the same thing about you.”

“Funny,” Cheshire drawls.

“I try.”

“Whatever you think of me, Ego is worse. From what I’ve heard, she’s an Eldritch terror.”

“Eldritch terror?”

“Terrifying tentacle monster bent on worldwide destruction.” Artemis starts laughing. She doesn’t like the woman, but she doesn’t seem like that.

“Where’d you hear that?”

“Yondu. Apparently, he helped her smuggle her other kids.”

“Other kids?” Artemis is suddenly much more concerned. There aren’t any other people on this planet.

“Yeah. Apparently Ego had a ton of them, asked Yondu to help reunite her with them. But they all disappeared as soon as he left them.” Artemis feels a shiver crawl up her spine.

“Why would I trust you?”

“Why would I lie?” There are plenty of reasons that Cheshire could have lied, but Artemis doesn’t know why she would. If this terrible feeling in her gut is any indication, Cheshire might be telling the truth.

“Come on,” Artemis says, “let’s go find a tentacle monster.” If Cheshire is right, Artemis wants to put a dagger through Ego’s heart herself.

  
  


When Zatanna has a bad day, she listens to her walkman. That’s how she’s always deals with her problems. She sinks into her music. It works a lot better when people just leave her alone. She’s trying to listen, but Drax won’t shut up.

 

_Ninety nine dreams I have had_

_In each one a red balloon_

 

“Do you know where Artemis has gone?”

“Out.”

“She is not out in the gardens.”

“Well I don’t know then, Drax.”

 

_It’s all over and I’m standing pretty_

_In this dust that was a city_

 

“But you are her girlfriend. You always know where she has gone.”

“Artemis is _avoiding me,_ Drax. Wherever she went it was to get away from me.”

 

_If I could find a souvenir_

_Just to prove the world was here_

 

“Go talk to your bug girlfriend,” Zatanna groans.

“Mantis is not my girlfriend,” Drax assures her, “the woman is much too hideous to appeal to me.”

 

_Here it is, a red balloon_

_I think of you and let it go_

 

“I don’t care, Drax. Go bug her.”

“I cannot “bug” her, Zatanna. She is the bug.”

“Just go away, Drax,” Zatanna groans. Drax gets the message, and finally leaves her alone. Zatanna sighs in relief. She can finally be alone to angst in peace. She lies down on the couch, and the end of 99 Red Balloons melds into the beginning of Brandy. The bright, tropical sounding music starts. It’s a stark contrast to the desolation that she’s feeling.

 

_Doo doo dit doo doo dit doo doo dit doo doo_

 

_There’s a port on a western shore_

_And it serves a hundred ships a day_

_Lonely sailors pass the time away_

_And talk about their homes_

 

_And there’s a girl in this harbor town_

_And she works laying whisky down_

_They say “Brandy, fetch another round”_

_She serves them whisky and wine_

 

Zatanna hears the door open. Ego walks in. Zatanna scrambles to turn off the walkman.

“No, leave it on,” her mother says, “I love this song.”

“Really?” Zatanna asks. She still feels awful, but this seems like a light in the dark. Her _mother_ likes Brandy.

“It’s one of earth’s great classics, and your father’s favorite, if I remember correctly.”

“You do,” Zatanna says, trying to keep her voice even.

“You don’t seem happy,” her mother says gently, “you’re in paradise, Zatanna. You can do anything. Fix any problem.” The only two problems Zatanna really wants to solve can’t be fixed, even by her mother or her magic.

“What is it?” her mother asks, sitting down on the couch beside her. Zatanna doesn’t really want to talk about it, but she doesn’t want to leave her mom hanging either.

“Artemis left,” Zatanna says. She doesn’t know if Artemis will come back, let alone forgive her. It leaves her feeling empty.

“Oh. I’m sorry.” Zatanna closes her eyes, and tries to melt back into the music. The background singers are dooing and dahing, and she wants to pretend that’s all that matter.

“You know, we’re the sailor in this song.”

“What?” Zatanna asks. She just wanted to melt into the music, but apparently they’re going to have a conversation about the meaning of the lyrics. Alright.

“What?” Then her mother starts _singing._ She even starts singing well, too. Ego has a deep, warm alto voice that almost overpowers the singer’s.

 

_He came on a summer’s day_

_Bringing gifts from far away_

_But he made it clear he couldn’t stay_

_No harbor was his home_

 

“Artemis might have been the one to leave, but she was always going to be temporary, Zatanna, But you? You can be eternal.”

“What?” Instead of letting her respond, her mother starts to sing the chorus.

 

_The sailor said Brandy, you’re a fine girl_

_What a good wife you would be_

_But my life, my lover, my lady is the sea_

 

Zatanna’s not an idiot. She can understand that he mom wants her to make a choice, that there’s something here that she thinks Zatanna should value more than Artemis. Zatanna pauses the song, and skips to the next one. She doesn’t actually want to hear the rest of Brandy later today.

“Some things are more important than any one person, Zatanna,” her mother says with such conviction that Zatanna almost believes her.

“So what is the sea, exactly?” Zatanna says. She tries not to sound totally unconvinced, though she kind of is. She doesn’t know what would worth leaving Artemis, what _would_ have been worth leaving her dad for.

“The sailor didn’t leave for no reason, you see. The sea was his everything.” Zatanna rolls her eyes.

“Yes, I know what it was in the _song._ What is it for us?”

“Us?”

“Right now, in your heavy handed extended metaphor?” The realization dawns on her mother’s face.

“What, exactly, is the sea?” Then, her mother puts a hand on her shoulder, and Zatanna feels as if her eyes have been opened.

“This, Zatanna, is the sea.” Eternity stares her in the face, an expense of stars that never ends. She can feel the power flowing through her body, more magical than she could ever imagine. This is _everything._ This is energy coursing through her veins, the sea engulfing her lungs.

She feels overwhelmed and amazed, so much so that she can barely think.

“Someday, this will be all there is. A galaxy full of us- the magic of mother and daughter, shaping the world in our image. We’ll engulf the world, Zatanna, like Noah’s flood covering the whole galaxy.” Ego says mother and daughter, but Zatanna hears magic. Magic means her father, and the man’s image springs forth in her mind.

“Dad,” she says. As she thinks of her father, other images flash through her mind. She seems images of Artemis, Drax, Rocket, Groot; there are so many people that she’s come to care for. What about them?

“Ah yes, your father,” Ego says fondly,” Giovanni was a wonderful man. He had as much faith in magic as I do. Pity I had to put a tumor in his head.” And then, whatever trance Zatanna was in is broken. She feels nothing but rage as she grabs her gun. Then, she blasts a hole through her mother’s chest.

“You ungrateful little- UGH,” her mother’s words turn into a shriek as the hole in her chest is filled with bright blue tentacles. Her form shifts as her body heals, and she looks like many different women as she shifts.

“I go through _all_ this trouble of mothering you, finding the form that would best suit you-” For a brief moment, her mother looks like Carrie Fisher. “And _this_ is the thanks I get? Not even Giovanni’s daughter is worth this shit.”

“You killed my dad,” Zatanna says, and she feels the rage boiling inside of her.

“Oh _grow up!_ I killed a lot of dads. I killed a lot of kids. I’m not losing any sleep over it.” Zatanna doesn’t know what that means, but she suddenly remembers eternity- remembers her mother talking about Noah’s flood.

“You’re going to destroy the world. You need me to do it.”

“I need you alive. I don’t need you conscious.” Then her flicks mother her hand, and a tendril of blue light shoots out of ground towards Zatanna’s chest. She feels a searing pain go through it. Then, she hits play on her walkman, a last minute instinct kicking in. Then, the music kicks in.

 

 _Ha, ha woman it’s a crying shame but you ain’t got nobody else to blame-_ The other worldly woman glares at her, as if Zatanna hand picked this song to spite her.

 

“I never liked this song,” Ego says .The chords strike, and Zatanna feels the pull of the chorus as Ego pulls the walkman off her belt.

 

 _E-evil woman, e-evil woman, e-evil woman, e-evil wo-_ The sound dies as Ego crushes the walkman in her hand. Zatanna feels the tentacle of energy burning through her chest, and she melts into the pull of infinity. She lets herself be pulled out to sea.

 

 

Artemis and Cheshire finally get back to the palace. Then, they see Mantis and Drax.  Artemis ignores  them both as she tries to push forward.

“You can’t go in there,” Mantis warns, fear and worry written across her face.

“I have to save my girlfriend,” Artemis says.

“No-” Mantis shakes her head, “Ego will already have won her to her side. You have to leave now.”

“What has happened, Mantis?” Drax asks.

“Something terrible,” Mantis says. Artemis doesn’t care what Mantis says. She has to save her girlfriend. When they burst into the main room, Artemis knows that they arrived too late. Zatanna is suspended in midair, impaled on a tendril of bright, blue light.

“Your friends have arrived,” Ego says, sending her unconscious daughter a condescending smile.

“What did you _do_ to her?” Artemis demands.

“Showed her the light,” Ego says. A ball of bright, blue energy forms in her hand. Artemis knows that can’t be good.

“Does the “light” involve killing me?” Artemis asks, rolling her eyes. Ego shrugs.

“More or less.” Then, she hurls the ball of light at Artemis. It moves far faster than Artemis expected it to. She doesn’t get fully out of the way, and she feels it sear her shoulder.

 _“Shit,”_ Artemis curses, trying to ignore the burn to her shoulders. She draws her weapon, and she sees Cheshire doing the same.

“You think you fight me? How cute,” Ego says. Artemis draws her bow and grabs an arrow. She notches it, and shoots one directly into Ego’s chest. It goes straight in, and Artemis almost sighs in relief. Then, Ego smiles. She rips the arrow out of her chest, and the small, bloodless hole fills up with that bright blue light. Ego drops the arrow to the ground, and her chest is completely healed.

“You can’t fight me, I _am_ this planet, and soon the world will be me too.” Ego balls her hands into fists, and behind her, tendril after tendril of light forms. They congregate into enormous formations, until they look more like a single wave than individual forms. Then, Ego brings her hands forward, and pushes them down.

Then, a tidal wave of light comes crashing down around her.

  
  


Zatanna’s world is foggy. She can still see the stars, but the events playing out before her are vague and blurred. She can see her mother, and Cheshire, and Artemis. Artemis, who’s been hit by a tidal wave and crawling on the floor in pain. Zatanna feels rage deep within her. She’s regaining her clarity, and she tries to regain control of her body. She feels her pinky move.

“I will destroy you,” Ego says, looking at Artemis like she’s a pesky bug she’s about to crush under her boot. Zatanna balls her hand into a fist, and suddenly sees the world again with perfect clarity. She has pulled herself out of the void.

She reaches deep within, and finds the strength to produce another ball of energy. She throws it straight at her mother, and it goes straight through her again.

“I’m getting tired of this, Zatanna,” Ego says, like an exasperated mother should sound. Ego turns around, her chest cavity healing as she does.

“Leave my girlfriend _alone_ ,” Zatanna says. Zatanna tries to focus, tries to think about how to best hone this power.  “Magic is something you feel in your heart,” her father told her. Zatanna realizes that the best results that she's had with this have been when she felt raw emotions and let instinct kick in. Zatanna reaches to the bottom of everything, and _feels_. She engulfs Ego in a tidal wave of her own life force.

 

It’s her versus her mother: celestial versus celestial. The fate of the world hangs in the balance. Zatanna never expected _this_ when she was pretending to be a witch as a little girl. Another thing that she didn’t expect is the ship heading straight towards the planet. The hull lowers, and Zatanna sees Rocket hanging over the edge.

“Come on!” Ego growls, “does private planet mean nothing these days?” The ship flies a little lower, and takes off her mother’s head. Zatanna knows that it will grow back momentarily, but the sight fills her with an odd mix of sickness and satisfaction.

“Get in!” He shouts. Artemis and Cheshire share a look. Then, they immediately run towards the ship. Mantis immediately follows. Rocket looks at her expectantly, gesturing towards the ship.

“Get on the ship, dumbass,” Rocket shouts.

“No,” Zatanna says. She started this fight; she has to end it.

“We have to stop this." 

“You can't stop, this," Rocket says, "you’re fighting a fucking planet! Our best chance is to get the hell out of here.”

“We have to destroy her. If we don’t she’ll just hurt more people.” Maybe even kill more people.

“I know how to beat her,” Mantis says, speaking up for the first time.

“Oh thank god,” Zatanna says.

“Keep her distracted,” Mantis says, “we will blow her up.”

“You wanna blow up the planet?”

“It’s the only way,” Mantis says.

“You two sure about this?” Rocket asks her.

“About twelve percent sure.” Rocket sighs.

“Alright, we’ll take bug lady and try to kill your crazy planet mother. You just stay alive.” He tosses her a jetpack and life support system.

“I am a bug,” Mantis says with a big, wide smile. Rocket closes the ship, and they fly away. That leaves Zatanna with her mother, who has just regenerated.

“You know, kid. I’m getting awful tired of growing back limbs.” She moves her neck, and it cracks unnaturally. Zatanna doesn’t give her time to respond, and digs deep within herself. She shoots a blast of energy back at her. Her mother puts up a wall in return.

“You aren’t gonna win, Zatanna. There’s only one way this is gonna end.”

She looks like the mother that Zatanna always wanted. The woman that she longed to have to take care of her, to confide in, and to hold her tight and never let go. Zatanna knows that this thing isn’t what she wanted at all. She’s a power hungry void of a woman, who cares about nothing but herself and the destruction she can bring.

“But you know, I think I’ll give you another chance. Come with me, Zatanna. Help me realize this dream. I’ll have you either way, but it will be easier if you’re willing.” Zatanna laughs. Her _dream_ is Zatanna’s worst nightmare.

“It’s Brandy or the sea, child,” Ego says.

“Brandy,” Zatanna says, exhaling breath,  “I choose Brandy.” That was always going to be her answer. How could it not be, when the choice isn’t even just Brandy? It’s the port. It’s the sailors that it serves. It’s the whisky and the wine, and the whole damn bar,  and- _ugh_

This is a bullshit metaphor anyway.

 

The choice Ego offers isn’t between Brandy and the sea. It’s between the sea and the world. It’s not leaving Brandy for adventure, it’s destroying the entire harbor town for Ego’s bullshit god complex.

Ego’s eyes turn from bright blue to a starry, rainbow sky.

“You don’t have a choice, kid. You’re part of the sea, and if you don’t accept it, well.” A tendril of luminescent energy forms in Ego’s hand. It looks like a whip, and she grins a wide, feral grin.

“The sea’s gonna swallow you up.” Zatanna thinks as hard as she can, focuses on the idea of a lightsaber. A moment later, she can feel a tubular bit of metal in her hands. She thinks harder, and a bolt of blue light extends from the saber.

“Infinite possibilities, and you recreate the sword,” her mother says, “how disappointing. I thought you;d have more imagination.”

"And I thought you would have seen _Star Wars!"_ Zatanna finds herself wishing more than ever that her mother had just been Carrie Fisher. Zatanna slices the saber towards her mother, but she creates a shield out of thin air. Then, she pushes the saber into the ground.

“Amateur," Ego says. Then, around her feet, tendrils of energy form, ready to strike like an octopus’s tentacles. They push forward, and pin Zatanna to the ground. She struggles beneath their grasp, tries to think of anything she can create to escape their hold. As her mother inches closer, Zatanna finds that she can’t think of anything. The only thing that fills her mind is the fear of failing her friends and being swept up once again into the void.

“Just let go, Zatanna. Feel the tide, let it sweep you out to sea.”

“No, I can’t. I _won’t.”_ Zatanna feels her determination return, and focuses on her white, hot anger and how to channel that outward. She feels actual heat emanate from her body, and then the heat becomes a real flame. The flames sear off the tendrils, and Ego backs away in pain.

“God damn it,” Ego curses. Zatanna allows the flames to die. Zatanna feels the energy pierce through her chest again.

“You _will_ submit,” Ego growls. Zatanna feels the pull of the void, feels the appeal of infinity, but she refuses to fall into it.

“No, never.” Then, Zatanna hears an enormous boom, like the sound of a bomb going off. Ego falls to the ground as though she’s been shot. The tendril in Zatanna’s chest dissipates, and the pain leaves her immediately.

“What is happening to me,” Ego says, a look of shock and horror on her face. The tips of her fingers and the ends of her toes turn to dust and fall off of her body. She looks like the Wicked Witch of the West, terror in her eyes as she realized she was melting.

“They blew you up from the inside out,” Zatanna says, realization dawning on her.

“No, please,” Ego says, her arms and legs turning to dust, “if I die, you’ll lose your magic. You’ll die someday too.” Zatanna thinks about what Ego offered, a life of knowledge and power, but the loss of everything she ever cared for. The decay spreads to Ego’s body, and she starts to look a little like a collapsing mummy,

“Yeah. Someday I’ll die, but until then? I’ll live.” The dust fully consumes Ego’s body, finally reaching her head.The last remnants of Ego’s body fall to the ground in a heap of dust, like the contents of a dustpan discarded into the garbage. Ego is dead along with her hubris and disregard for other life.

“Ashes to ashes and dust to dust,” Zatanna says under her breath. She straps on her jetpack and life support system and flies off this dying world. She finds the ship, and breathes a sigh of relief when she finally flies onto it.

“Zatanna,” Artemis says, pure joy and relief on her face. Zatanna nearly runs into her arms, and hugs her tightly.

“We did it,” Zatanna says into her shoulder.

“Yeah, we did it,” Artemis says.

“The rest of you, get in here,” Zatanna demands. Drax wraps his big, strong arms around them. She feels Rocket’s tiny paws wrap around her leg, and then Groot climbs up her body to sit on she and Artemis’s shoulders. They all hug, and it feels like everything else melts away.

“Not to break up the reunion, but the planet we’re above is _literally_ blowing up.” Rocket breaks his hold of her leg. Then, the rest of them break their hug. Groot crawls down to the ground.

“Shit,” he shouts as he runs to the controls. He grasps the controls, then hits the acceleration. Zatanna has to adjust to keep from falling. Somehow, Cheshire and Artemis both stand firm. Must be something about the ninja assassin upbringing.

“Can we talk?” Cheshire asks, turning to Artemis. Artemis sends her a look.

“You want to talk? Now? After everything?" 

“Yes.”

“After everything you’ve done?”

“You should talk to her,” Zatanna says. Artemis sends her a _really_ look? Zatanna just nods.

“Alright,” Artemis says. She sounds irritated by it, but Zatanna can tell that she’s happy that her sister actually wants to talk to her. Artemis goes off with her sister to talk.

“I am Groot!” Groot says, holding out his arms for her to pick him up. Zatanna picks him up, gingerly, and places him on her shoulder.

“Yeah, you are.”

  
  
  


Artemis doesn’t know how she feels. They defeated the evil, and they all ended up alright. But in Artemis’s experience, no one is ever “alright”. "Alright" isn’t an end goal, "alright" is a temporary state in between bouts of awful. She doesn’t know if this conversation with Cheshire will extend her time in the “alright” category or push her back into another bout of awful.

“What do you want?”

“I’m sorry for how I acted earlier.”

“Sorry?” Artemis asks. She’s known Cheshire long enough to know the other woman doesn’t apologize. This must be some sort of ploy.

“I am,” Cheshire says, “I didn’t think about how leaving would affect you. I just did.”

“Yeah, sounds about right.”

“I didn’t want to care for you, because that would mean that there was something that I liked about our time with Sportsmaster and I just- I couldn’t do that.” Artemis bites her lip. Then, Cheshire continues.

“I didn’t want a sister.”

“I can tell.”

“But I got one, Artemis.” Artemis’s eyes widen.

“Wait,” she says. She can’t decide what to focus on: Cheshire calling them sisters? Cheshire using her right name? It’s all just overwhelming in a wonderful kind of way. But then, of course, the weight of their actual relationship comes tumbling down on her.

“But you left me?”

“I did. And I shouldn’t have. I was afraid of getting caught, and even more than that, maybe, I was afraid of caring.”

“I know the feeling,” Artemis admits. Before she met Zatanna and the rest of the Guardians, Artemis hadn’t let herself care about anyone for years. It’s just so much easier not to.

“So, can we start over?” Cheshire asks.

“That depends,” Artemis says, “who am I starting over with?” If she just says Cheshire, Artemis doesn’t know if this will work. She wants to know the other woman. If she ever wants to try to trust her, she needs to know this.

“Jade. That’s my real name.” Artemis quirks a smile.

“You know? I think I can give Jade a chance.”

  


Artemis and Cheshire don’t come out for nearly an hour. Zatanna is glad that they’ve gotten to bond as sisters, but she wants to bond with Artemis as _girlfriends._ She hasn’t been able to talk to Artemis, _really_ talk to her, since their fight on Ego’s planet. She doesn’t want to leave them on that note any longer than she has to.

Artemis and Cheshire finally come out, and Zatanna sighs in relief as her girlfriend comes over to her.

“Can we talk in private?” Zatanna asks. They go back to Zatanna’s room, and sit down on the bed.

“I’m so sorry about what I said,” Zatanna says, “I was just so worked up in Ego.” She wanted her mother. She wanted that magic. She wanted the entire fantasy that woman provided.

“I don’t want you to feel like reality isn’t good enough. Reality sucks sometimes, but it’s what we’ve got, right?” Reality is all that they’ve got. They have what’s real, and they have each other.

“Yeah,” Zatanna says, “even if _reality_ is that your mother’s a mass murderer.”

“She might have birthed you, but she was _not_ your mother,” Artemis asserts, taking Zatanna’s hand in hers.

“That’s kinda the definition of “mother” there, babe.” Artemis glares.

“You would not call Sportmaster my father, would you?”

“Of course not. That man did nothing but torture you. He didn’t help make you.” Sportsmaster claimed to be Artemis’s father, but he wasn’t her father in the way that Giovanni was Zatanna’s. Sportsmaster wasn’t blood.

“Oh no,” Artemis says, and she looks far, far away, “he helped make me. He and and every awful thing that ever happened to me helped make me." 

“I mean he’s not blood.”

“Blood does not matter. Who cares for you does.” It takes Zatanna a moment to realize it, but Artemis is right. She, and Drax and Rocket and Groot, they’re more family to Zatanna than Ego ever was.

“You’re right. I can’t believe I got so caught up in what Ego was saying.” She feels like an idiot looking back on it.

“You just have to love what you have,” Artemis says, and it sounds like the most profound thing that Zatanna’s ever heard.  

“You know, this reminds me of a song.”

“Not another,” Artemis groans.

“This one’s really good,” Zatanna says, “it’s an old earth classic.”

“You say that about the song that says Rock Me Amadeus.”

“That _is_ a classic.” Rock Me Amadeus is one of Zatanna’s favorite songs. It’s silly, and it’s always fun to sing and dance to, but it’s not the same as the one that she’s about to play. This one’s fun, but deep. She’s even heard tell of this one being a gay anthem. She doesn’t know if that’s true, but she likes to think of it that way. Zatanna hits play on her walkman, and the song starts, immediately showcasing Belinda Carlsie’s vocals.

 

 _Ooo baby do you know what it’s worth?_ _  
_ _Ooo heaven a place on earth_

 

Zatanna stands up, and holds out a hand for Artemis. The other girl grabs it, and Zatanna helps her up. Then, Zatanna starts dancing. Artemis smiles, and twirls along with her.

 

_They say in heaven love comes first_

_We’ll make heaven a place on earth_

_Ooh we’ll make heaven a place on earth_

 

Everything isn’t perfect, but it’s getting closer. Dancing with Artemis, Zatanna thinks that’s more than enough.

**Author's Note:**

> hey guys i sure hope that this made sense if you haven't seen the movie because i a lot of subplots. hope it still works


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